Tedeschi Trucks Band on Friday delivered the second installment of the I Am The Moon album series, Ascension. The seven-track release marks the halfway point of the band’s ambitious multi-media project, which included an album film shared on Wednesday.
Rather than dropping an entire double album on fans all at once, Tedeschi Trucks Band elected to parcel out the expansive project over several months. From May through August, the 12-piece helmed by Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi will set forth a steady stream of small plate albums and corresponding visual interpretations. The result for the listener is the ability to savor, slowly digesting half a dozen or so songs each month before another course of the lavish musical feast arrives at the table.
The overarching concept of I Am The Moon points back to the 12th century, taking inspiration from the Persian epic Layla and Majnun. The chronicle of two star-crossed lovers—which also served as inspiration for Derek And The Dominos‘ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, an album deeply cherished by TTB—is represented in each of the four volumes: Crescent, Ascension, The Fall, and Farewell.
Related: Watch Col. Bruce Hampton And Tedeschi Trucks Band Jam On “Lovelight” [Video]
Opening with the Memphis swing of “Playing With My Emotions”, Ascension charts its path across the sky with a natural arc. As the sun hides away and the moon comes out, the flow of songs emanates a twilight feel from the breezy late-night blues of “Ain’t that Something” to the restlessness of “All The Love”. “So Long Savior” washes away our transgressions in the mud of the Mississippi Delta before Derek Trucks’ ornate slide guitar bids goodnight on the album-closing “Hold That Line”.
Stream Tedeschi Trucks Band’s I Am The Moon: II. Ascension via the player below or on your preferred platform. The band is currently out on the Wheels of Soul Tour with Los Lobos.
Tedeschi Trucks Band – I Am The Moon: II. Ascension